The Four Spent the Day Together features protagonists chasing after new beginnings, trying to break free from substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into violence. The author often employs the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into intentionally weary through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the narrative. Meanwhile, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, because this seems a novel form of writing – fact-based, truly literary. But then it turns out to be laden with the recurring issues and approaches as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
Kraus started out as an creative who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, elevating intimate women's literature from humiliation into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the epistolary style brought to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It is logical that she now wants to experiment with fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a time when she claims that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing redundant.
Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering three generations – all unable to escape their backgrounds. There is the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, relocating from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a locality largely deserted by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
As a reader fond of honed writing of the kind the author herself often avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section.
As a reader drawn to crafted language of the kind that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that allows space for minutiae, like the pail that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."
Frustration and Disruption
I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this different style could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the pleasure readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her idol Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works returns in the middle section. The protagonist is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help her husband control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a environment fueled by the anger and fear that drives a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her listed profession modified from "author" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she states that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Murder Narrative
So then we come to the actual killing – and the referenced day passed by the victim with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus has great source material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, mooching around getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
